Public Health Ministry to consider 2nd Pfizer jab for schoolboys next week
The Education Ministry announced on Saturday that as of Thursday, more than 864,000 students in the 12-18 age range had received one jab of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.
Though the Royal College of Paediatricians has advised that boys aged 12-16 be only given one jab to prevent the risk of myocarditis or heart inflammation, the Public Health Ministry is reconsidering this advice.
“The ministry will next Wednesday discuss whether boys in the 12-16 age group should get a second jab,” deputy government spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirek said.
“Hopefully we will have a conclusion before October 25, when medics will start administering second jabs.
“To avoid confusion, parents should ignore information from unconfirmed sources and only follow official updates from the Public Health Ministry.”
According to the Public Health Ministry’s plans, children aged 12 to 18 are to get their first and second jabs at an interval of three to four weeks starting from October 4.
Separately, the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry reported that about a million doses have been provided to students and staffers at colleges and universities, Ratchada said.
“Of these, about 616,000 people have received their first jab, while some 384,000 people have been fully vaccinated.
“So far, over 4.07 million children aged between 12 and 18 have registered for inoculation with the communicable disease committee in each province,” she added.
“This number is higher than the Public Health Ministry’s previous estimate of 3.61 million children booking jabs.”
